Self-clearing-bottom coal-car.



D. L. KNOWLES, J.. MARVEL 8: C. HESELDEN.

SELF CLEARING BOTTOM OOA'L GAR.

Arrnlou'xon rum) man 3, 190g. Jan. 25,1910.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

SELF CLEARING BOTTOM'COAL GAB.

' 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

' of the car are arrange PATENT oFnIoE.

I lnnvrnnxnownns, Joint MARVEL, AND enemas HESELDEN, or 15ANVILLE, 1 IILLINOIS. I p

ear-82.;

,. Application filed June 3,

. useful Improvements in 'Self-Clearing-B0t- 3mm Coal-(h1 rs,- of whichthe following is i a? ecification. H r

1g. his invention relates to railway rolling -stock, and has specialreference'to that type of freight cars used for the transportation andIdilscharge of various commodities such as coa a full understanding ofthe inven- ..tion-,= reference'is to be had to the following detaildescription 2 and the accompanying drawings, in which'.' p j.-"-'--Figure 1 is a side elevation of the device, 20". somewhatdiagrammaticall .shown; Fig. 2 is a} longitudinal section su stantiallyon the line2-2 of Fig. 3;"Fig. 3 is 'a plan view of the-car, the housinghereinafter described being omitted for the sake of clearness; Fig; 4 isa transverse section substantially jonthe line 44 of Fig. 3, and Fig. 5is an end-elevation. 1- I .j :Throughout the following detail descrip- 1tion and out 9 vral figures of the draw- 3o'fin similar are referred toby like eience'characters. I a A Ffrei'ght car built in accordance withthisinvention comprises a main supporting frame 10' adapted tobe,mounted upon 36 trucks11 in a conventional manner. The ,frame 10includes a pair of central longi- Vtudinal stringers '12, laterallongitudinal stringers 13, and endvgieces 14. Centrally .-a series ofvertical struts or ts 15 and 16, the latter located neenthe. on 'tudinalcenter of the car and tot e stringers 12. The osts 15 eonnectedto thestrin ers 13, al of the extendin 'above an below the stringfio-ers'toraboutt e same distance. Said posts.

negates effective support for the opertilig devices hereinafterdescribed and also i l; foundation for a housing 17.

i The body of the car 18 is of the inclined 'orf'hopper bottom type andis supported upon the, frame 10, said body 18 having the inclined bottomsections 19 inclined toward each othe r toward the center of the car,the plan'esof said inclined bottoms intersecting the generallplaneof'the frame '10 substan-o Specification of Letters'Pa tent.

-' sELr-cLEAnIne-norrom. Conn-can.

I Patented J an. 25, 1910. 1909. -SeriaI No. 499,916.

tially'midway between the ends of the body 18 and its transverse center.The lower extremities of the bottoms 19 are spaced apart in a well knownmanner and 'them'aterial carried 'by the body and to be supportedtherefrom is intended to be discharged from the inclined bottoms throughsaid space. I

The housing 17. above referred to is of substantially an invertedV-shape and 'is rigidly supported upon the upper ends of said upper endsbeing shaped to conform to the said sha e of the housingintp the inneror lower si e ofwhich the posts extend as indicated in Figs. 2 and 4.The lower edges of the housing extend over the lower ends 7 of thebottoms 19 and'are spacedtherefr'om "'eh-utes being on each side of thecentral side of the transverse center of the car. In other wordsthereare four of said chutes provided as indicated, although it is to bein thisrespect. The four several discharge chutes are normally closed byupwardly. movable gates or valves 20. The valves 20 normally rest whenin closed position; upon thebottoms 19 and are adapted to swing upwardlyin arcs of circles just below the horizontal plane and in parallelism,although the exact location thereof may be varied if desired. Connectedto the rock shafts 22 are pairs of flcxible connections 23 indicated aschains, the upper ends of the chains are connected to the respectiveshafts 22 by any convenient means such as eyebolts, and the lower endsthereof being connected to the several valves 20', preferably at theouter or up er ed es so as not to interfere withthe 0w 0 materialthrough the posts 15 and 16' above referredtoythe' s o as to providedischarge chutes; two of said.

stringers 12 and likewise two being on each' lower edges of the housing17. As a preferrecl means for mounting said gates orunderstood that theinvention is not limited V 22 are shown as being in a substantially thechutes nor the operation of the chutes.

on their pivots. Each rock shaft 22 is 4 adapted to be operated by awrench or-crank in a well known manner to be applied on 5 an outwardlyextended polygonal end there 7 of; A ratchet wheel- 24 mounted thereonis adapted by cooperation with a pawl 25 to:

retain'the shaft in any desired ad usted posi-' tion so as to maintainthe valves 20 shown,

10 if desired. I

By the construction described it ispos sible for the car to bedischarged or emptiedof as-much or as little of itsload 'as desired andfor the flow to vbe stopped by simply releasing the pawl from itsratchet permitting the valves or catches to gravitate to the bottoms l9automatically cutting 01]? the flow. Again, another advanta e of thisconstruction is that there areno oors' 20 or gates to swing belowthe'car bottom, an

objection frequently met with in devices of this "character; The gatesbeing swung outwardly on arcs of circles are easily 0 erated toopen,-and yet there is no possib' ity for the weight ofthe'm'aterialto'causethen to. open when not desired. The gates may allbe opened or only part of them as may be desired at any onetime.

That portion ofthe car body between. the

3 0 stringers 12 is bridged by strips 26. The

mar ms of the housin '17 are preferably provided with flanges 1%,whereby it is impossible for material to sift through between the edgesof the housing and the walls of 85 the car body and to; be lost. Saidflanges may be integral-with the housing or may be made separately andsecured to the several parts by riveting or in any other suit ablemanner. The flanges also serve to 40 stren hen the structure, the samebeing subjecte to rough usage in ordinary practice.

While there has been described herein a' preferred embodiment of carbodyto which the operating devices are attached, it is to be runderstood that the operating devices may be applied to many coal carsalready in use without departing materiall from the spirit of theinvention embraced t ereby'.

Havin thus described the invention, what is claime as new is:

1'. Thehereinde'sc'ribed car comrising a car body having bottom.

inclined toward each other andspaeed apart, v

a housin extendingtransversely of the car body an covering the saidspace ,.lthe lower" edges of the housing being spaced" from. the saidbottoms and forming discharge chutes, a-series of valves below thehousing and resting. normally upon the said inclinedbot- [toms of the,car body, and -means operative within the housing to cause the elevationand opening of the valves upwardly from said normal posit-ion;

2. The hereindescribed self dumping, coal car eom'prisinga carbody'having an --in-- elined bottom, a housing extending transversely ofthe ear and projecting over the lower edge of the said bottom, the loweredge of thehousing being spaced from the bottom forming a dischargechute, an are shaped valve pivotally mounted below the housing andresting normally upon said bottom closing: said chute; a transverseshaft extending within the housing, and a flexible connection betweenthe valveand the shaft, whereby on"rotation ofyt-he shaft and whowill-be lifted tolopen the. disehar'gefchutex '3. The herei'nde'scr'ibedcoal car comprising a body havingjnclined bottom sections andtransversely of the car, connections be- 9 tween the rock shafts and thevalves, and

means to control the operation of the rock shaft, substantially as s'et'forth.

In testimony whereof-we afiix our signatures -in presence of twowitnesses.

v 'DAVIDLQ KNOWLE'S; JOHN MARVEL, CHARLES 'H ESELDEN. Witnesses: a. n.-

J; B. HU'romsoN,,-"" I A, B. Hawoirrn,v

